Chapter 3

Departures and Arrivals

Harry sat alone on his bed, in his room in Grimmauld Place. His new home. A home…he finally had one. With one thing missing. A family. And the thudding gaping ache that he was sure was hole in his heart where Sirius had once been was a constant reminder of that. He wiped his eyes quickly with his sleeve self-consciously. He had no idea why he had decided to come here. The Order was still using it as headquarters and he had thought that the company of those he knew would help him through this difficult time. He was very wrong. Seeing Ron, Hermione and the others just made him feel worse. Most people were nice to him, others just downright ignoring him, offering him a sympathetic smile now and then…that was mainly the adults. But some people's behaviour was downright weird. For instance, he had caught Tonks and Mrs. Weasley preparing beds in some of the cleaner rooms as if guests were to arrive. When he questioned them about it, Mrs. Weasley had gotten very flustered.

"It's just in case dear, gives us something to do…"

Yeah right. Just another way to avoid him. To avoid what was going on. What bothered Harry the most though was Remus Lupin's behaviour. Harry had expected him to, well…be a bit friendlier? The man had hardly spoken a word to him since the train station.

"It's just his way of grieving Harry…remember he lost his best friend too…?" Hermione had said wisely when Harry had mentioned it to her.

"Yeah Harry…" agreed a worried looking Ron, "And come on mate…" he looked awkward and looked to Hermione for back up. Much as he cared for them both they were pretty useless. They had recovered well from the whole Department of Mysteries fandasco…although Ron had a tendency to stare into space a lot more often without realising it, which Harry found a bit disturbing…especially when Ron stared at him, as was often the case.

With all his thoughts swirling around his head, he didn't even notice Remus standing at the doorway; head tilted slightly, a worried look on his face. The face was too old for it's owner.

"Harry?" he asked, his voice slightly hoarse.

Harry's head snapped up. Slightly surprised and off guard when he saw who it was, all Harry could do was stare. Lupin looked very tired and pale, which wasn't unusual due to his lycanthropy, but the full moon had been two weeks ago, and so Harry wondered what the matter was.

"Yeah?" Harry asked, perhaps a little aggressively. Lupin remained at the door unflinching.

"Harry…" the man trailed off and looked away sighing. He turned and looked directly at Harry. He stepped forward and walked over to the bed, perching himself on the edge. Harry was still very shocked not only by his presence but by this very apparently 'friendly' gesture. The first of the Summer so far. He still remained fixed on Harry, the perturbed expression now deepening.

"Harry there is something I need to tell you…"

"You can't do this to me! Plea-"

"Willow please listen to me…please!! I don't want to but…I…I can't go to England…I just can't…" Kennedy explained, tears overflowing onto her tanned cheeks, "This is where I belong…"

The tears spilled from Willow's eyes. They were about to board the plane…and Kennedy had announced she wasn't willing to come. They had arrived at the nearest airport, where Giles had explained that tickets for all of them were booked onto many flights to London, so all they had to do was collect the tickets, check in with the little baggage which contained what remained of their possessions and find a flight. Faith and Wood had said their goodbye's and promised to watch their plane leave.

"Kennedy, please just…"

"No Willow I can't. I love you but…I want to stay here…and I have the new slayer thing…please…understand."

Willow had no time to answer. Kennedy leaned forward and kissed her passionately before picking up her small bag and running back towards where Faith and Wood stood now looking confused. Xander stood awkwardly at the gate.

"Will…come on…" he gently took her arm and led her onto the plane, her sobs echoing around the terminal. And they were gone.

After a tedious flight to London, with Willows futile snuffles heard for hours, and Andrews constant whine ("Are we there yet?"), Buffy and Xander were at their wits end. Upon stepping into the terminal in Heathrow Airport, they faced a new problem.

"Wait…" Xander spoke up, "How do we know who's coming to get us?"

However, the answer to this question was plainly obvious, as the gang saw a very odd looking man walking, or rather limping their way. From the underneath of his pinstripe trouser suit, a wooden claw protruded, and most of his face was covered with a large bowler hat. Only straggly bits of hair wisped about near his chin. The five of them stared as a gruff voice spoke out…

"You must be the Americans?" Buffy nodded. The man smiled sardonically, "Welcome to England! I'm Alastor Moody…" and he held out a gnarled hand and looked up to them. Dawn shrieked slightly. If his face could have told a story no doubt it would have been full of great battles, scars etched across his face from past fights almost like a map, and a chunk of his nose was missing. One of his eyes was larger than the other and a sparkling blue…and it was whirling around in its socket regarding the group. Upon Dawn's reaction, he laughed roughly and grinned. Almost as quickly as his eye span around, his smile turned upside down into an almost grimace.

"Which one of you is Willow Rosenberg?" he asked. Willow, still rather red-eyed, stepped forward slightly. Moody nodded slightly and his gaze softened if that was even possible.

"Well this way then, we've got a…" his face wrinkled as he thought, "...a car, that's the one…a car ready." Moody turned on his wooden leg and began to hobble off towards the exit, Dawn and Andrew following him quickly. For what appeared to be an old man, he was incredibly speedy. Buffy, Xander and Willow glanced at each other dubiously. Without a word, they followed him.

They drove silently through the streets of London, where the sun was just rising. Their driver, a red headed man (which amused Willow only slightly) with hair long enough to match her own, only glanced once over the gang, before muttering to Moody and then remaining silent as he drove them to their destination. Willow could feel her eyes drooping, but the thought of what was to come, and the thought of Kennedy kept her awake. It was to remain a mystery to her why he lover had run away so suddenly. She supposed it was because she was afraid. And this only instilled the fear in Willow further. After about half an hours driving, the car stopped at the mouth of a street. A little way beyond the street, they could see a dirty and unkempt square, where litter lined the roads, and grimy houses stood forebodingly, their windows like eyes watching. Xander's brow furrowed. Andrew's nose wrinkled. Moody led them through to an unusual space between two houses as their chauffer drove off to park the car. Houses eleven and thirteen guarded the empty space like soldiers standing to attention, and Buffy wondered curiously where they were to meet with the mysterious Harry Potter. Moody took a slip of parchment from his pocket and read aloud…

"The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London."

To the scoobies amazement, a house slowly appeared in between eleven and thirteen. Door first, followed by grimywalls and windows. If any house was more forbidding, it was this one. Moody quickly stepped up to the door and rang the bell, but all of the group jumped as Moody immediately cried out in desperation, his palm flying to his face, and he winced. The door slowly opened to the sound of screams…

AN: I'm sorry if I got the description of Moody wrong at all, but I couldn't find my copy of GoF so if there is any problem I'll try to amend it ASAP.